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Aside from his comments on the media, the majority of the president's speech at the event, which was sponsored by the evangelical megachurch First Baptist Dallas and Salem Media Group, was focused on veterans and on religious liberty.

He reiterated his administration's commitment to honoring and caring for the nation's veterans, specifically touting the Veterans Accountability Act, which he said would allow Veterans Affairs to more easily utter the words \"you're fired\" to under-performing employees.

\"I was left a mess,\" Trump said of the Department of Veterans Affairs. \"The fact is, but we're cleaning it up. You watch.\"

On religious liberty, the president pledged to the largely Evangelical audience that he would never forget them and said to cheers, \"We're going to start saying 'Merry Christmas' again” in the United States.

\"My administration will always support and defend religious liberty. We don't want to see God forced out of the public square, driven out of our schools or pushed out of our civic life, we want to see prayers before football games if they want to give prayers,\" he said.

Trump said he's \"very happy and very proud\" of following through on a campaign promise to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits non-profits like churches from endorsing or opposing political candidates.

\"We will not allow the government to censor sermons\" or \"to restrict the free speech of our pastors and our preachers,\" Trump said.

Trump was introduced by First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress at the event, who spoke about his enthusiasm for the president and praised Trump for incorporating his faith into his leadership.

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